Surfing in Chile

At the beach town we are currently staying in, Maitencillo, we passed so many different restaurants and surf schools along the boardwalk. You could order empanadas, lattes and ice cream and get surf lessons all at the same spot.  We could not resist getting the boys lessons while we are here. For USD $30 per kid, Finn and Nash each got a private 90 minute lesson along with a board and wet suit rental.  I was super nervous about the boys having surf lessons with jellyfish invested waters along with ocean temperatures in the low 60's. Not to mention it never gets warmer than around 72 ish degrees. Not exactly hot enough to tempt me to go in for a swim. Fortunately, the boys are braver and more adventurous than I am. They absoultely loved it and decided to go back 5 more days in a row. The last two days, they would take back-to-back lessons - 3 hours straight in that freezing cold water. They wanted to keep going longer but their instructors were exhausted and shivering. I can not believe how comfortable they both are in the ocean. Towards the end of each lesson, they were comfortable enough jumping on each others boards and jumping back from leading with their left to right foot. 

We have been renting an air BnB directly across the beach from the surf school. Fairly common to not have a/c down here but they also don't have screens on any of the windows or doors. During the afternoon, the sun bakes on the house. We would open the doors and windows to get a nice cross breeze to cool down the house. Well, after 4 days of doing this, we apparently created the perfect breeding grounds to make a colony of mosquitoes in the house. Both boys have some many bites it looked like they have chicken pox. Even sleeping under blankets with long sleeve shirts on, Nash still got insane bites on his arms. He says to us "I guess I have really tastey blood". Paul even got several bites on his face! Needless to say, I've gone through more Benadryl cream than I ever thought possible. Who knew we would need 3 tubes of it here? I brought the same First Aid bag that we traveled with in Africa- didn't use the cream once there. 

Earlier today we met with Julie's friend and the famous director Maite Alberdi. Maite is currently up for an Academy Award for her film "The Eternal Memory". She and her son are from Santiago and happened to be visiting Cachagua this weekend. We got to hang out with her, her son and her aunt at the beach in Cachagua this morning. The boys loved playing with her son, building sand castles and playing in the ocean.